Over 30 events made for very successful Earth Day in Wayland

Sunday

May 12, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 12, 2013 at 12:22 PM

Transition Wayland and the Wayland Schools PTO Green Team would like to thank all the hosts, visitors, sponsors, volunteers and the local media for making Wayland’s latest Earth Day event a resounding success.

Kaat Vander Straeten and Molly Faulkner

Transition Wayland and the Wayland Schools PTO Green Team would like to thank all the hosts, visitors, sponsors, volunteers and the local media for making Wayland’s latest Earth Day event a resounding success.

Last year the two organizations collaborated to hold a traditional fair with booths and activities at the Town Building. Though with 400 visitors this was by all counts a success, they wanted to try something different this year.

The goal was to “give Earth Day away” to the community by decentralizing it. They came up with the idea of open houses – opening homes, gardens, places of worship and businesses, where things sustainable, resilient and “green” are happening, though not always known to many residents.

The invitation to the community elicited a much larger response than they had anticipated. By the April 1 deadline, 34 events all over town, north to south, east to west, were scheduled.

Some houses offered to open for two hours, one for 12, and many opened on both days. It’s a good thing it was an Earth Day weekend, because all of it would not have fit into one day.

Indeed, it was a challenge to fit all of them onto the map in the flyer, the printing of which was generously sponsored by Maple Hill Architects (Doug Sacra, also known as The Wayland Town Crier’s “Green Guy”) and Tempietto Homes (Win Mallett of Toaster House fame).

The Town Crier ran an 11-week article series, the flyers flew into school backpacks, and (repurposed) lawn sign invitations sprang up by the roadsides.

Hosts prepared tours and handouts at their houses old and new, designed, built or retrofitted for green living, a geothermal system, and lots of solar, mostly photovoltaic but also hot water.

Claypit Hill and Happy Hollow prepared their gardens, composting and rainwater catchment. Visitors arrived to stroll private vegetable and herb gardens, take home seedlings and perennials, and try dandelion fritters and pine needle tea. Girl Scouts and BASE offered children’s activities. There were horses to pet, honeybees to watch, and baby chicks to hold.

Stop & Shop and Whole Foods offered goodies to customers bringing in their Earth Day maps, and Russell’s Garden Center gave tours of their greenhouses and solar array.

Fireseed Arts invited people to play electric guitars and other instruments crafted from trash, and the Transfer Station featured a Conservation Commission booth and free compost.

Mainstone Farm revved its band saw into action, and Forty Acres Drive welcomed test drivers for three ultra-fuel efficient cars.

All together, Wayland Earth Day events received over 600 visits, some from friends and neighbors, many more from welcome strangers. There were even people looking to move to Wayland, using this event as a way to explore the town and meet the people. Needless to say, they were impressed.

In the end the organizers could not resist holding one centralized event. The choice of screening “Chasing Ice,” which made waves earlier in the year in theaters around the world, was an easy one. Thanks to Stop & Shop, which generously sponsored the purchase of the screening rights, and Wayland High School, which hosted it, over 50 visitors watched this breathtaking documentary. It was one of the first grassroots screenings in the U.S. (in fact, the DVD had arrived in Wayland just the day before).

The conversation that followed brought out both optimism and pessimism about climate change and our ability to deal with it. The same happened after a smaller, living room screening of “Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and the Land Ethic of Our Time,” and in conversations at many of the open houses. Concerns, hopes, and in the end this Earth Day were all about one question – how can we, in Wayland, live sustainably and resiliently?

Even though Earth Day 2013 is over, Transition Wayland and the Wayland Green Team want residents to know the invitation to courageously combat, and adapt to, climate change is outstanding and continuous. Waylanders are warmly invited to visit our websites by clicking here and here, contact us, and come to our meetings.